quickest way to get started

[Mr_Miyagi]

hi,

whats the quickest way to get the stuff from one hdd to a new hdd (different pc) so that everything is transferred *inc o/s and the new pc actually boots...?

[NooNoo]

Depends on the os and the chipsets of the new and old pc...

[BOB IROC]

Depends on the os and the chipsets of the new and old pc...

YOu can use an imaging program like Ghost and something like sysprep, but Like Noo says it depends on the OS and Hardware differences. If the applications can be reinstalled I would say start from scratch and just copy data files over.

[Gabriel]

Agreed,
Most of the times if you do sysprep and image the drive it would be sufficient. but in some cases this comes tricky.

as Noonoo Said - depends.

BTW you might want to try this - if you anticipate problems:
http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATICW/

Have a good one,
Gabriel

[Ferrit]

There are many different ways but without knowing what os and what parts its a little hard to advise.

[Mr_Miyagi]

the old pc has xp pro and the new one would be blank... my wife's thinking of getting a new pc to solve her overheat problem (which i think is her age, but sssshhh! dont say anything) ....

guess who gets to transfer everything over???

[shamus]

If you can image the'old' machine and tranfer the image to the 'new machine, run the XP install and do a repair install. You'll still probably have to hunt down some drivers but I've had good luck with it. I've used a Gateway laptop Ghost image to reimage a Dell laptop, run a XP repair install, loaded missing drivers and all was good.

[Ferrit]

If its xppro I would just before shutting down to do the transfer remove all drivers for hardware pertinent to the old motherboard and then image it and then load the image on the new system and then do a repair install.
I have used this method numerous times switching between many different chipsets with nearly 100 percent sucess
Also be sure you do a adequate spyware and virus scan online first

[Mr_Miyagi]

i've my stupid head on again; where do i find the repair/install option? is that on the xp cd?

i've also not had much luck with ghost in the past. do the drives have to be the same size? (told you my thick head is speaking)

[shamus]

i've my stupid head on again; where do i find the repair/install option? is that on the xp cd?

Boot from the XP CD and skip the Recovery Console option, just say you want to setup Windows XP now. It will then search for windows and ask you if you want to 'Repair the selected Windows XP installation'.

i've also not had much luck with ghost in the past. do the drives have to be the same size? (told you my thick head is speaking)

You can clone a smaller drive to a larger (Ghost will resize the partition to fill the extra space) but not the other way around.

[Ferrit]

Actually if the data will fit on a smaller drive it will ghost to it provided its a newer version of ghost.
You should also run a chkdsk /r on it afterwards

Norton Ghost is an advanced disaster recovery and backup solution for your PC. Wizards guide you through creating an exact copy - or backup image - of your hard drive. Norton Ghost also makes it easy to copy everything from your hard drive to a new hard drive when you upgrade the hardware in your computer. Norton Ghost supports shrink on restore for FAT, FAT32, and NTFS. Smaller drives can be used when restoring backup images (when space is available).

[shamus]

Ferrits right, I stand corrected. If the partition is small enough to fit on the smaller target drive it doesn't matter what size the source drive is.